that is going to be saturday, sept. 5th, 2010 at 5pm, australian time, so adjust that to your local time to listen. i did not see any archive link at their site, so this may be 'listen or miss it' thing.interesting playlist...

Sunday, August 29, 2010

IN JULY- PaNoPTiCoN has published the "Catwalks" compilation- HABEMUS PAPAM has recorded eight tracks with the help of Eric Renwart at Studio Molière,

IN AUGUST- PaNoPTiCoN has published its second and last volume of our performance during the 21st Jazz Jette June Festival.- LANDING GRACE has finalized the recording of some songs from the band's repertoire in order to release a short demo

IN SEPTEMBEROn saturday 4th september, HABEMUS PAPAM will share the bill together with ANTICHRONIQUE and GURUMANIAX at MAGASIN 4, 51B Avenue du Port in Brussels.

On wednesday 15th september, PaNoPTiCoN will comeback on stage and will open its sixth season at BONNEFOOI, 8 Rue des Pierres in Brussels.The line up will include Catherine Smet (piano), Yves Dellicour (bass clarinet, soprano sax), Pierre Mottet (bass) and myself (myself).Show will start at 10:00pm. Free entry.

On friday 24th september, PaNoPTiCoN will participate for the second time at ULB'S NOCTURNE. The band will perform on the world music stage at around 8:30pm.The musicians involved on this special occasion should be Martin Daniel (keyboards), Fabrice Fardelli (guitar), Constantin Papageorgiadis (bass), and random musicians from the Rambi Bambo fanfare.

IN OCTOBEROn monday 4th october, PaNoPTiCoN will go to Saint Ghislain in order to present their craft in improvising music. We will play at the PASSÉ SIMPLE, 34 Place Albert Elisabeth, at around 9:00pm.Expected musicians will include Christophe Bouquelle (guitar), Olivier Catala (bass), Jean-Jacques Duerinckx (sopranino and bariton), Antoine Guenet (keyboards) and myself (it's me again).

Vai dot com, the Steve Vai website, is scheduled to release a vinyl version of "Where The Wild Things Are".This live in Minneapolis album will be available on coloured vinyl (one red and one blue disc), and the first 777 copies will be signed by Steve and will include a t-shirt, a meet-and-greet pass, and more.

Available on September 14, 2010.Pre-order and extra info at Vai dot com.

A lot of excellent recordings of Captain Beefheart shows are being seeded (peer-to-peer) over at DimeADozen right now.And it's not just the quality of the recordings that is exceptional. There's some pretty rare stuff among it as well.A nice opportunity to catch up on some live Beefheart.

March 2011, Stefano Bollani will bring his "Sheik YerZappa" show to 'De Roma' in Antwerp, Belgium.Stefano Bollani is an italian jazz pianist. He recorded Zappa's 'Let's Move To Cleveland' on his "Smat Smat" album, and he also performed 'Eat That Question' live in concert.I can only imagine what his "Sheik YerZappa" will be, but it sounds like something that I don't want to miss.

I know, that's still 6 months to go, but you can already buy your ticket...

"Niglah" is Sebkha-Chott's third album. It has 72 tracks, but I think it's better to say that the entire album consists of one track that has ben cut into 72 (sometimes almost random) pieces.Great stuff.My ears tell me that this is my favourite Sebkha-Chott album. Short pieces, lots of changes, lots of energy...

"Paul Buff Presents - Volume 20" concludes Crossfire Publications research into Paul Buff's Cucamonga era.Quite a ride.Who could have thought that we would get the chance to listen to this material so many years after it got recorded.Again, this volume features Uncle Frank contributions: he engineered The Tornadoes' 'Malaguena', there's an interview with FZ where he discusses the period at PAL Studios, and there's the PAL Studio Band's version (with Zappa) of the Zappa penned 'Never On Sunday'.

There's nothing like a bit of Sebkha-Chott to get your adrenaline going. Weird tempos and a mixture of every possible musical style. That's Sebkha-Chott.

I already told you that I was very impressed by their Zappanale concert a couple of weeks ago. The only thing that I can add is that you really have to check them out."Nagah-Mahdi" is a good place to start. Or maybe not. :-)

It's party time at Zappateers !!July 29, 2010, the Orchestra Spaciale big band did a performance entitled "All You Need Is Zappa", with a program that mixes Beatles tunes and Zappa singalongs.An audience recording of this concert is being seeded at Zappateers.

intro, Stick It Out, Let's Make the Water Turn Black, Taxman, I'm Only Sleeping, Holiday in Berlin, How Could Be Such a Fool, RDNZL, Let me Take You To the Beach, Got to Get You into my Life, Come Together, Oh No - Orange County Lumber Truck, Something, band intro, Tomorrows Never Knows

Fifty years ago, Paul Buff was running his PAL Studio in Cucamonga. Jump back in time with Crossfire Publications and listen to another impressive batch of recordings.

Frank Zappa engineered The Tornadoes' "Bumble Bee Stomp" and "Johnny B. Goode" and the album also includes an edit featuring just the performance of "Cyclophony" with Frank Zappa at the Steve Allen TV show.

Any other Prince fans out there?Look what I found...It's a bootleg box; it's entitled "7 Weeks in London", and it includes 35 CDs and 3 DVDs !!Factory pressed bootleg stuff. And it does sound pretty good as well.All from the 2007 Earth Tour Londond concerts.

The box includes 7 CD/DVD jewel case boxes, and each of these includes a bunch of CDs and/or DVDs: 35 CDs and 3 DVDs in total.

I've got this new CD-rack... More room, more space, more music, ...There's nothing like being surrounded by the music that you like.So yesterday, a stack of Prince bootlegs moved to their new home. And while I was at it, I pasted them into the United Mutations Archives as well.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the "Frank Zappa at the Roundhouse" festival that will be held in London, UK, from November 5 until November 7, celebrating FZ's 70th birthday.

The program looks very interesting and I know about a lot of people that will be attending. It should be fun.I won't be there myself, but I do hope that I'll get my hands om some pictures and maybe even a review...

I've heard that the 'golden ticket' is already sold out, so if you want to go, don't hesitate and get your tickets in time.

RUBATONG was put together by Han Buhrs in 2006.Sure, the musical backgrounds of the members of this quartet differ substantially: there's an improvising bassist that once started off playing punk, a percussionist who is usually engaged in performing the sophisticated precission of contemporary classical music, a guitarist that is known for mixing rock and rap music, but never abondoned his lyrical options and a vocalist that will tempt anything between raw throat sounds and singable language -be it english, dutch or french- to become a song.That's Rubatong, in theory, that is.

But there's more: this quartet appears to be able to unite around crystal-clear little tunes as well as loud collective rhythmes and sound bursts, thus providing a wide dynamical range within its repertoire.The diversity of their musical backgrounds is not a leading principle for the Rubatong musicians. It's just usefull information that they bring in during rehearsals.So after all the most striking characterization of Rubatong is the fact that it's a band. A band that ingeniously scrapes and sands their ideas untill a remarkably ideosyncratic music emerges.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Seems like I can't get away from the Ensemble Ambrosius' Hamburg concert. But then again, it was great.Yesterday, or was it the day before, I linked to Till's videos.Today, it's time for Luuk's excellent footage:

When U.S. band Bogus Pomp performed at the St.Katharinenkirche in Hamburg in 2008, the NDR recorded the concert. One year later, in 2009, the Bach Society released the Bogus Pomp album "Zappa spielt für Bach". All in support for the Bach organ that is being rebuild at the St.KatharinenKirche in Hamburg.

So when Sheik Yerbouti did a concert in 2009, some of us were already hoping that the same scenario would enfold. And here you are: Sheik Yerbouti, feat. Napoleon Murphy Brock: Zappa spielt für Bach.The second album in a series, I hope.

Luis Gonzàlez' record label Hall Of Fame is best known to Zappa freaks for the astonishing Unmatched series where bands from all over the world play the music of Frank Zappa.Volume 13 is completely dedicated to Caballero Reynaldo (= Luis G.) and his Grand Kazoo Orchestra.

Volume 12 in the Unmatched series is Caballero Reynaldo's "Traca / Matraca" album. If you get the impression that you're somehow familiar with this album cover, just pull out your copy of "Waka/Jawaka".

The New York based Absolute Ensemble, conducted by Kristjan Järvi, is and 18-piece electro-acoustic ensemble that fuses classical, jazz, rock and funk. Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix have found a place on the bill with Bach, Stravinsky and Schoenberg and the works of new composers whom the band is often the first to promote. They have also performed works by the Beatles, Frank Zappa, John Adams and Michael Daugherty.

Six years ago, the ensemble did a superb concert series entitled "Absolute Zappa". The concerts featured Napoleon Murphy Brock and Mike Keneally. I caught them in Köln. Thinking about MK playing the 'Uncle Remus' melody on guitar, still gives me goosebumps...Too bad that this never got released on album. (the website does offer some of the Zappa pieces on their music player !!).

Anyway, when I received "Absolute Zawinul" as a gift about a month ago, I was really curious to find out what it would sound like."Absolute Zawinul" had the Absolute Ensemble working together with Joe Zawinul (of Weather Report fame) and with members of the Zawinul Syndicate. Joe Zawinul insisted that they would record new material. He wanted the project to show the musician he had become, not the musician that he had been.

The result is fabulous. "Absolute Zawinul" is a fine mixture of modern jazz, classical music and world music. I love it.Joe Zawinul died on September 11, 2007, during the finishing days of the album.He could not have asked for a more impressive tribute.

Everyone who ordered their Zappanale ticket in time, received this excellent promotional CD. The album offers 16 tracks. All from bands that have played (or should have played) Zappanale. No wonder that it includes a couple of Zappa compostions as well.